The UK-Japanese defence and intelligence relationship, past, present, and future

The security relationship between Britain and Japan goes back to the early years of the last century. During the period of the Anglo-Japanese alliance (1902) the two countries collaborated on a global scale, with Japanese warships operating out of Malta during the First World War. This was followed by a traumatic breakdown in relations during the early 1940s as a consequence of the Pacific War.

Cooperation was resumed in the course of the Cold War and has intensified in recent years, culminating in a raft of new bilateral partnerships, most recently the Hiroshima Agreement of May 2023 and the Reciprocal Access Agreement of January 2023, characterised by the British government as “the most important defence treaty between the UK and Japan since 1902”.

Britain’s post-Brexit foreign policy ambitions, reaffirmed in the Integrated Review Refresh and Japan’s proactive diplomacy, as well as mutual concern over the challenges from the People’s Republic of China and North Korea, have underpinned these developments. There is even talk of Japan joining AUKUS or deepening involvement in the Five Eyes intelligence partnership. The British and Japanese governments describe one another as their “closest security partners in Europe and Asia respectively.”

Bilaterally, the two countries are able to deploy their forces to one another’s countries, are rapidly accelerating their defence and security cooperation, and are partnering to address a series of critical challenges in the Indo-Pacific. 'Security' has been defined by both governments broadly to encompass traditional military and intelligence issues, and also questions of economic resilience and the broader concerns over freedom of information, cyber security, and the maintenance of open societies and the values that underpin the rules-based international order.

In light of all this, the Centre for Geopolitics at Cambridge, FAMES, and Keio University have assembled a distinguished group of academics and practitioners to look at this broad sweep of history and reflect on what it might mean for us today.

This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Panel Speakers:

• Professor Yuichi Hosoya is a Professor of International Politics at Keio University, Tokyo. He is Managing Director and Research Director at the Asia-Pacific Initiative, Tokyo.
• Professor Antony Best is a Professor at the London School of Economics, specialising in Anglo-Japanese relations, the origins of the Pacific War, and the international history of East Asia.
• Dr Guibourg Delamotte teaches international relations and Japanese politics at the Japanese Studies Department of the French Institute of Oriental Studies.
• Paul Madden CMG is a former British Ambassador to Japan, Australia and Singapore. He is currently a Visiting Professor of International Relations at Keio University, Tokyo.
• Dr Michito Tsuruoka is Associate Professor at Keio University, based at the Faculty of Policy Management, Shonan Fujisawa Campus. 
• Professor Chris Hughes is Professor of International Politics and Japanese Studies at the University of Warwick. He is also co-editor of The Pacific Review.

Chair: Dr John Nilsson-Wright (formerly Swenson-Wright) is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (FAMES), University of Cambridge and an Official Fellow at Darwin College.

REGISTER TO ATTEND VIA EVENTBRITE

Please note that this event is being photographed and videoed, and both may be published on the Centre's website and YouTube channel. We may also use the photos and videos for the purpose of promoting the Centre’s activities to the media, within publications and online. If you do not wish to appear in either, please speak to a member of the Centre for Geopolitics team present on the day.

Date: 

Friday, 17 November, 2023 - 17:00 to 19:15

Event location: 

John Bradfield Room, Darwin College, CB3 9EU